'Monkey See, Monkey Do': Children Follow the Actions of their Parents

How you act around your child or children may dramatically influence their behaviors as young people and essentially, adults.

A recent study showed that children whose parents lied to them were more likely to lie. For instance, when children observe that elders, including parents, teachers, brothers, etc., are not honest, these behaviors become ingrained in them, and they begin to lie more easily and more frequently.

The California University Social Sciences division studied the issue, showing that the first time an adult lies to children, they may follow the same pattern, which could become an issue throughout their entire lives.

"This is the first experiment confirming what we might have suspected: Lying by an adult affects a child's honesty," said Leslie Carver, a professor at the university, via a press release.  

For the study, 186 children were studied, with each randomly selected group of participants told through an experimenter that they would gain access to a bowl of candy in the next room if they came and played a game. The experimenters, however, later told the children that that there were no candies and it was just a lie to coax them into playing the game. The control group of participants were not lied to but simply invited to play the game.

For the experiment, children were required to identify certain character toys that they couldn't see by their sounds. Some of the sounds included a "tickle me" audio clip for Elmo; "I love cookies" for Cookie Monster; and "There is a rumbly in my tummy" for Winnie the Pooh.

The experiments left the room pretending to take a phone call as the sounds began to play, leaving the children alone for a remaining 90 seconds in which they could take a peek at the toy to better guess the sound, if they wanted to.

Results showed that 5, 6 and 7-year-old kids who had been lied to about the candies were more likely to lie about their actions with the toy.

"Perhaps the children did not feel the need to uphold their commitment to tell the truth to someone who they perceived as a liar," the authors noted, via the release.

What do you think?

More information regarding the study can be found via the journal of Developmental Science.